You know, some days, no matter how hard you try, you just cant get anything to go the way its supposed to. I wanted to mow after work today and I had asked my sweet son if he would trim some trees for me today because I am tired of having to duck or getting smacked in the face when Im on the riding mower. He very nicely started on the trimming, but ran out of time to haul the limbs around back before he had to go to a meeting tonight. Being me, I decided to haul them around back myself, only to find that several were too big for me to drag. No biggie. Ill just get on the mower and tie a rope around them and drag them with the mower, right? NOT. The mower had a flat tire, which when I tried to air it up wouldnt cooperate. The tire was off the rim on the outside edge. Hmmm.... Okay, so Ive never changed a tire on the mower before, but Ive changed them on my car. How hard can it be? Okay, so after taking the plastic cover off the hub and trying to figure out how it comes apart I decided the smartest thing to do was to go to our local farm supply place and ask. I described what I had seen and they said there must be a c clip that I needed to remove. Back to the house and found that, yes, there was a c clip that I just couldnt see at first. I finally got the clip off with the help of a flat screwdriver and then jacked the thing up and stuck a big 8x12 piece of scrap beam from the house under the back plate to keep it from falling. It took a few minutes, but I finally managed to yank the thing off the axle and threw it and the new tire I bought 2 years ago (that I ended up not needing at the time) into the back of the Suburban. Took it to the store to have them switch the tire out. It was going to take about 90 minutes so I went back home to continue dealing with the downed limbs. After dragging several around back, my sweet neighbor Fred Rindt took pity on me and came over with his mower and garden wagon and helped me drag them away and cut up the one that was way too heavy for anyone to move. Mission accomplished! By this time its almost 8:30 so back to the store I go to pick up my tire, thinking maybe I can get at least a little of the front yard mowed if I hurry. Got my tire and headed home. Quickly slid it on the axle (my that was much easier to put back on than it was to take off) and put the washers on and then fought with the c clip to get it back all the way in the little groove where it belongs. I knew enough to know that if I didnt make sure the dumb thing was seated all the way in the slot that my tire would fall off while I was mowing. Put the plastic cap back over the hub and took the block out and lowered the jack. Checked the other tires to make sure everyone else had enough air and then cranked it up. Put it in reverse to back out and nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING happened. It would not go in reverse. I thought, o great, I must have hit something with the jack and messed it up. Shut it off and got off and pushed it out and turned it where I could go forward. Started up again and put it gear to go forward. NOTHING! At this point it is 8:59 and the store closes in 1 minute. I ran in the house and grabbed the phone book and called the store. The girl who answered informed me they were closing and after I begged, she finally agreed to ring the guy in the service department, who was still there. When I got him on the phone, I started explaining what had happened and that I just needed to get on his list to have him come pick my mower up to work on it. He said, Did you get the key? Me: What key? He says, There is a key that goes inside the wheel that has to line up with a groove on the axle when you put the tire back on. Thats why it wont go. Didnt the other guy give you the key? Uh, NOOOOOO. Turns out he specifically told him to make sure he gave me the key when I picked it up, but that didnt happen. They open at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow and I am going to be there. By this time its almost dark. Pushed the mower back where I park it, removed the key and grabbed a rake. At least I could finish raking up the twigs that were left under the trees. Well, at least I tried. Turns out its darker under the trees than the rest of the yard that time of night. Tomorrow is another day, but of course you know, its supposed to RAIN again tonight! I think maybe I will start over on Thursday.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 03:15:17 +0000
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